Take heart, everyone. Alabama’s next mega game is a mere eight months away at Texas A&M—the last team to beat the Tide. So choose your poison, America:

The dynasty of Alabama or the SEC. You can’t avoid either.

Unless, that is, you’re one of the fortunate souls who gets to run with the champions in Tuscaloosa. In that case, the first meeting on the road to three-peat is later this week.

“Thursday to be exact,” Tide quarterback AJ McCarron said confidently. “So you’re not going to hear me say (dynasty). I’ve got a second or third father in that locker room who won’t allow it. I’m focused on that first meeting.”

Good luck in College Station and Columbus. Buckle up in Eugene and Palo Alto and Athens.

“One thing you will always be able to say about this team is we’re going to play hard and we’re coming at you,” said Tide All-American linebacker C.J. Mosley, who will return next year for his senior season. “You’re going to have to earn it.”

So simplistic, yet so all-encompassing. But at this point, with Alabama sucking the very life from the room year after year; with the Tide winning their second straight national title and the SEC its seventh, what’s left for the imagination?

Nick Saban made it clear this week in South Florida that he has no intentions of leaving college football for the NFL. Texas A&M and Georgia made it clear in the bowl season that both could have—and likely would have—beaten Notre Dame just as badly as the 42-14 whipping the Tide dished out.

The chasm between Alabama and the SEC and everyone else grows with each passing season. Heck, they changed the way the postseason will be played beginning in 2014, in part, because the SEC was too damn good.

Now consider this: The Tide return a majority of their starters next year, and will (again) sign the nation’s best recruiting class. The SEC schedule rotation leaves Alabama with the easiest schedule in the league—the Tide don’t play Georgia, South Carolina or Florida from the East Division—and another opportunity to extend the current streak of dominance.

The last time a program won three of four national titles, Nebraska was in the waning years under legendary coach Tom Osborne (1994-95, ’97). The Huskers haven’t won a national championship since, and lost by 23 points to Miami in the national championship game following the 2001 season.

This Alabama team, with Saban’s maniacally-demanding style at the forefront, isn’t going anywhere.

Alabama recruits and develops players better than any other team in the nation. Alabama plays big games better than any team in the nation. And Alabama rebounds from a loss better than anyone.

In the last two championship seasons, Alabama is 8-0 following November losses, outscoring their opponents 304-84 (38-10 average). In the last two championship games alone, the Tide won by a combined 63-14.

“As long as (Saban) is around, this team will always have a chance to play for championships,” said Alabama center Barrett Jones. “This was by far the hardest of the three (championships I’ve been part of), but maybe the most rewarding.”

The reality is, it’s plug-and-play at Alabama under Saban. Doesn’t matter who’s on the other sideline, they’re getting steamrolled by a group of players who have bought into Saban’s process and squeezed the life out of it.

You say Greg McElroy, I say McCarron and his four-touchdown, zero-interception masterpiece. You say Mark Ingram or Trent Richardson, I say Eddie Lacy ripping through a previously stout Notre Dame run defense for 140 yards and two touchdowns (one receiving).

Notre Dame gave up two rushing touchdowns in 720-plus minutes this season, and Alabama had its first less than three minutes in—and two after little more than 15 minutes. In 12 games, Notre Dame allowed eight runs of 20 yards or more—and Lacy had two in the first eight minutes of the game.

The team that was second in the nation in red zone defense gave up five red zone touchdowns. McCarron’s 34-yard touchdown pass to Amari Cooper was the longest pass given up by the Irish all season.

Meanwhile, Alabama stretched its championship game dominance all the way to the 100th minute, holding Notre Dame scoreless until late in the third quarter and after it had built a 35-0 lead. LSU failed to score on the Tide in last year’s championship game, and Notre Dame did because, frankly, Alabama got bored.

“We lost focus,” said Tide linebacker Nico Johnson. “That was disappointing. We shouldn’t have let them score. That’s something that will haunt us for years.”

This is what it has come to at Alabama. They truly are playing against themselves; forcing each other to reach higher standards.

And when it’s not perfect? Well, there’s hell to pay.

“I don’t think words like dynasty are really words that I’m much interested in,” Saban said. “We’re interested in accomplishment and consistency in performance, and we want to continue to try to do that in the future.”

It begins this Thursday, and you better believe you won’t once hear McCarron or any other player eventually fitted for a championship ring think otherwise. Shoot, it wasn’t even the biggest win for McCarron.

Years ago, in the Little Flower Basketball Tournament in Mobile, Ala., a fifth-grader by the name of AJ once scored 33 of his team’s 35 points in the championship game—and beat his cousin Cullen Wacker’s team.